28. Who's a Heretic Now?

Tori screamed, writhing in agony as her fingers were crushed into the pavement beneath her. Blood poured in wave upon wave as the steamroller progressed up her arm. Bones cracked with sickening pops, her shoulder disconnecting as her collarbone snapped. The screaming was cut off as her ribcage was smashed into the ground, flattening her lungs and soaking her clothes in blood.

"'…there could have been no two hearts so open, no tastes so similar, no feelings so in unison, no countenances so beloved.'"

Jade was jolted out of her happy reverie by her English teacher quoting a book. She sighed.

"'Now they were as strangers; nay, worse than strangers, for they could never become acquainted. It was a perpetual estrangement.' So, how does this quote represent…"

Jade slipped into her daydream again.

"Um, hi."

Jade glared at Beck for a second before turning back to her locker without saying a word. The final bell was about to ring.

"Jade, I—"

"If the next words out of your mouth don't involve offering to allow me to beat you to death with this textbook, I don't want to hear them," Jade held up her biology book to make the point.

"We just…we need to talk about this," Beck insisted hesitantly, shifting the schoolbag on his shoulder.

"Why should we?" she slammed her locker shut, acutely aware of the stares they were attracting.

"Because I…I want us to be…okay."

"You want us to be okay," Jade repeated, looking up at him with her eyebrow raised.

"Yeah," Beck shrugged.

"Beck," Jade picked up her bag and hefted it onto her shoulder, "if you wanted us to be 'okay,' you should've started reevaluating your life choices, like, a year ago."

"I'm going to call you tonight," Beck sighed, apparently deciding to ignore her last comment.

"I'm not going to answer."

"I'm going to keep calling you until you answer because we really need to talk about this."

"Whatever," Jade muttered. She turned her back on him and shoved someone out of her way to get out of the door. She vaguely heard someone shout "ow! Watch where you're— oh, sorry Jade" but she wasn't really paying attention.

Beck called the first time when she was stuck in traffic on her way home. She let it go to voicemail. Four minutes later, she was still stuck in traffic (apparently some idiot decided it would be fun to drive on the sidewalk and now there were police cars everywhere), and he called again. This time she dug her phone out from the bag on her passenger seat and rejected the call. He only waited two minutes before calling again. She waited only one ring to reject it again.

By the time Jade made it through the gridlock, Beck had called her seven times. He was calling for the tenth time when she turned onto her street, and her rage scream drowned out the eleventh when she saw what was in her driveway. Cars. Like, at least fifteen of them. She had to park nearly a block away from her house. As call number twelve started she debated throwing her PearPhone onto the ground and jumping on it. Instead she rejected the call, put the device on silent, and zipped it into her bag. Then, she slammed her car door as hard as she could and started the hike to the house.

The first thing she heard when she opened her front door was giggling. She wanted to gag. Soft music was playing, and uniformed caterers were hefting platters of hors d'oeuvres. Still gripping the strap of her bag, Jade wandered out to the backyard to find a group of giggling, preening, simpering people in summery clothes with glasses of wine.

"Jade," Celia appeared out of nowhere. "I didn't expect you home so soon."

"Yeah," Jade crossed her arms. "It's really weird when school gets out on time, I should've called ahead with the news."

"I meant," Celia rolled her eyes, sipping her wine, "aren't you rehearsing for something?"

"Your murder," Jade muttered.

"Hm?"

"Nothing."

"Hi Jade!"

"Ugh," Jade groaned. She groaned even louder when she saw who the voice belonged too.

"Celia, how are things going?" Alyssa Vaughn asked, holding a wine glass of water.

"Oh, thank you Alyssa," Celia gushed, "everything's going wonderfully. I'm so glad you could come."

"Oh I wouldn't m—"

"I'm leaving," Jade interrupted, before turning sharply and stalking back into the house. She felt her phone buzzing in her bag.

"Wait, Jade," Alyssa followed her into the house.

"What?" Jade asked stonily.

"Well…how are you?"

"My prospects have gone from Solid Hopeful to Dystopian Novel," Jade turned to face Alyssa. "Since lunch."

"I—" Alyssa paused. "I'm not quite sure I follow. Also I think your phone is buzzing."

Jade shrugged, starting up the staircase toward her room. Alyssa continued to walk behind her.

"Why are you following me?" Jade asked through gritted teeth.

"I want to know what made your life into a dystopia."

"Your little Canadian friend with the hair, and his friend with the cheekbones."

"Beck? And…I don't know who the cheekbones person is."

"Lucky you," Jade dropped her bag once inside her bedroom. She flopped backward onto her bed and covered her eyes with her elbow, sighing.

"What happened?" Alyssa's voice sounded sympathetic from beyond the darkness cast by Jade's arm.

"I made the mistake of believing what someone said to me. And now everything is screwed up and I have to sing on Friday."

"You got tricked into singing?"

"No," Jade sighed, annoyed. "Don't be stupid. People don't trick me into doing things."

"Okay, then—"

"I just thought things were different. But they're not. Everything's the same as it was before."

"So your life was a dystopian novel before?"

"Since 'that one fateful day,'" Jade half-joked, sitting up.

Alyssa let the room fall silent, sitting on Jade's desk chair.

"I just—" Jade ran her hands through her hair. "When did I become the two-dimensional antagonist who isn't allowed to have a happy ending?"

"Is that what you are?" Alyssa asked quietly.

"Ever since… It just seems like I can't do anything right. And you know, I wasn't a terrible person until I was compared to… And now…."

Her phone buzzed in the silence between Jade's fragmented sentences.

"Do you need to answer that?" Alyssa gestured her head toward the bag by the door.

Jade nodded. She pulled the phone out of her bag and swiped to answer the call as Alyssa waved goodbye.

"Hello?"

"It only took nineteen calls and thirty-eight text messages!"

"I didn't read your messages."

"Most of them just said 'I'm going to try calling you again.'"

"Ah."

There was a short moment of semi-awkwardness.

"I didn't tell Tori to pay someone to ask you out."

"I know."

"She just really wanted me to ask Meredith out and I didn't know what to do."

"I don't know how it is in Canada, but 'no' is generally one of the first words we learn her in the US."

"I didn't want to be rude, so I tried to think up a good excuse — and really, I'm terrible at thinking on my feet. It's a wonder I ever pass improv classes. I mean, I told her I had a jar of coins I needed to count."

"Brilliant," Jade's mouth quirked into half a smile.

"But I'm taking her to the Full Moon Jam on Friday."

Brilliant.

"Is…is that okay with you?" he asked hesitantly.

"Why shouldn't it be? I've told you, like, six billion times: I don't care who you date. You can do whatever you want."

"I-I know, but we'd talked about—"

"It doesn't matter."

"But it does, I mean—"

"It doesn't. Have fun on your date."

She hung up.

I've had enough

It's obvious

I'm getting tired of crawling all the way.

The first paragraph of this chapter is entirely for JandreisPerfection, and the book quotes are from Persuasion by Jane Austen.

Oh my god I'm back. I haven't actually been busy, but I totally lost inspiration for a bit. This story is coming to a close soon anyway, probably two more chapters at the most. But anyway, thanks for all of your reviews. It was hilarious and a tiny bit disturbing that more than a couple of you said you would die if I didn't post the next chapter soon. Hope I made it in time. This song is "Which Witch" by Florence + the Machine. Chapter 5 is "This isn't Control" by MS MR. 4 was "There Must Be Some Other Way" by Genesis, 3 was "Trap Doors" by Broken Bells, 2 was "Spaceman" by the Killers, and 1 was "Call Them Brothers" by Regina Spektor & Only Son. Thanks again for reading, I love you guys.